Addition to my museum.

[John Eickhof]

My shipment from the U.K. arrived Wednesday, it was shipped on Monday! While continuing my endless search for old projectors for my museum, I came across an early Simplex machine located near Liverpool U.K. in the hands of a private collector. He had an auction in 2021 selling off his collection of machines and this one did not meet minimum bid. I was able to strike a deal on it (well below some of the asking prices for contemporary machines on epay!) Then I found a packing / shipping house to pick up the machine, pack it and ship it via UPS air freight to my doorstep. It is serial #479, 1912 (the 379th one made ) It has an early ID plate 'PAT. APPLD FOR' and the original Motion Picture Patents ID tag! According to the Projected Picture Trust, a historical group in the U.K., it is the earliest one known there and they have one also that is in the 600 serial range from 1912, they have records showing approx a dozen Simplex machines were imported in 1912 by Kineto, and were equipped with Kineto arc lamps and installed in the U.K.s larger venues. This machine is believed to have been installed in the Argyle Theatre of the Varieties near Liverpool, a 500+ seat house that was built in the late half of the 1800s and ran the first motion pictures in the U.K. around 1896, The Simplex (with Kineto lamp) was installed at the Argyle around 1912-1913 while the theatre went through a major renovation. It was used as a single machine until sound came in the 1920s and it was retired. The Argyle ran live shows with film interludes was destroyed by bombing during WW2. Dick Prather had a machine like mine in the 600 serial range, I believe it is now residing in a museum in Portland. The only earlier model Simplex existing I believe is Cary Williams very early machine in the 100 serial range that was made in 1911 and has a silod door with no glass. In my research, the solid doors were only on the first 150 machines, then the half glass was used until approx 1913 when the full glass was used, The full glass was trademarked and design patented in 1914. This rare machine is the center of my Simplex exhibit! Thanks to all that helped in this endeaver.
SS479B.JPG SS479C.JPG SS479D.JPG SS479F.JPG

[Emiel de Jong]

Very, very nice! Congratulations! Could you post a picture of the interior as well?

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Very nice John! Did you ever get to see Kerry Williams collection? He had Standard #100. It came from Don Malkames. There was no window in the door of #100... I have pictures of his museum back when it was open. I should send them to Brad so they can be in the Warehouse.

[Chris Wehrman]

John, is the pedestal original to that machine? I ran a super simplex with 4 Starr soundhead mounted on that exact same pedestal and I was always curious if the super was original or if it was an upgrade.

chris

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Wow! Well John, after the trips you made out here to see (and get) my old cinema stuff, looks like I'll have to make the drive to your place to check out this wonderful beast.

I used to have that same pedestal base that I had picked up from the late Conrad Button.

Amazed at the fast shipping, was that Mon-Weds as in tow days or just over a week? Either way that is surprisingly fast.

[Rich Haddard]

An amazing piece of history John, congtratulations! Makes me want to seriously think about a road trip to Idaho!

[Leo Enticknap]

I wish Barco could ship projector parts made in 2022 from the other side of the Atlantic as quickly as John was able to move his projector from 1912!

Interesting that Kineto might also have been an equipment manufacturer. It is remembered by British movie history buffs today as a production company, founded by one of major figures in the first two decades of the country's movie history, Charles Urban, later of Kinemacolor fame. Rachael Low (The History of the British Film, 1906-1914, p. 99) writes:

...but in Britain Urban retained his reputation as the sponsor of the travel, educational and topical films which were the characteristic products of his particular interests, and although from early 1909 onwards these became more the concern of the subsidiary company "Kineto" they continued to be produced in great numbers. In this year the parent company claimed that it had a stock of some 3,000 subjects and an annual output of 750. The new and impressive building in Wardour Street, Urbanora House, contained printing works capable of turning out from 70,000 to 100,000 feet of film a day and on the top floor there was even a small studio. This was seldom used, but after 19I0 the proportion of Urban drama films which were of English origin increased once more and by 1913 Kineto also were publishing English made feature films.

Low doesn't mention Kineto as a manufacturer of camera, lab, and/or projection equipment at all. Neither does anything else I can find on my bookshelf or online, which leads me to wonder if John's lamphouse was badge engineered. Urban had business interests on both sides of the Atlantic (he was an American who spent most of his life in England), so it doesn't surprise me that he imported projectors. But that does raise the question as to why he didn't rebadge the Simplex projectors if he did obtain the lamphouse from another manufacturer, and badged it as his own.

The lamphouse looks like one that would have been used with lantern slide projectors to me: from the late 1890s to the early 19-teens, magic lantern and movie presentations were often integrated into a single show, with the same lamphouse used on both the slide and film projectors. Urban was active in the film industry right from the beginning, so it doesn't surprise me that he was using this sort of equipment. But there doesn't seem to be any evidence uncovered by historians so far that he actually manufactured it.

[John Eickhof]

SS479G.JPG Mark, correctamundo on Kerrys Simplex, there was never a serial #100, they started production at serial #101 according to my Serial number list issued in 1957 by Simplex ) His was one of the very first, yes I had visited his place several times, ( I purcahsed my 1908 Edengraph predicessor to the Simplex from him ) The 101-150 numbers were made in 1911 (read my post better ) then in 1912 sthey started with serial #250 What information Dick Prather and I came up with showed the first 150 heads had the solid door, ( remember, the Simplex was the first all enclosed mechanism in the U.S. fon both film side and gear side) then complaints from users forced Cannock to add the small window and eventually the fulll window glass in 1913-1914. it is quite primative compared to the 1919 model I have next to it, It sports all straight cut gears and a chain take up with smaller magazines that would hold a 12 inch reel. Leo, according to the PPT of the UK, Kineto did manufacture lamphouses and was a sale house for early Kalee and BTH machines, this one does have a slide holder and of course the three point base lamp table slides over for showing them, the upper magazine has a fixed reel support shaft and a pressure collar to retain back tension on the feed reel, like the powers 5 & 6 models.the arc burner is quite primative and resembles the early Edison models pre 1900. It does look like a similar copy of the Simplex type C arc lamp using AC carbons. And the head has the slide lens attachment. Simplex offered the three point base into the late 1920s, however after about 1920 there was a round cut out in the angled support under the lamp table for a rheostat to control the popular simplex motor drive attachment, early, pre 1914 amaxchines were not yet used with motors and were hand driven as films were from 100 to 800 feet or so.when the addition of soundheads and heavier lamps required the five point the L-2 and heavier type S pedistal, then in the 1930s the Super Simplex pedistal -later the Simplex Heavy Duty LL-1 & LL-2 bases were introduced as well as the lighter medium duty LL-3 & LL-4 (The 1 & 3 were for indoor downward tilt, the 2 & 4 were for upward tilts like drive-ins ) I will get some more pics and post them soon. The lamp is not complete inside (missing the burner support shelf and rear cover ) but I am working on fabricating the missing parts. Leo, dont for get about Urban's partner Smith who also developed the Kinemacolor projector that used a Demeny style 'beater' movement, and had no maltese cross style intermittent. The attached picture is my 1919 Smplex Deluxe type B projector with Simplex 1500 watt 32V incandescent lamp. It retained the straight cut gears but had heavier mainframe casting and leather belt take up, also magazines that would take 14" reels (15" with NO finger room!) As well as safety glass viewing windows so it was nor necessary to open the door while runnig to see haow much film remained. It had an improved gate assy also.

[Leo Enticknap]

Leo, according to the PPT of the UK, Kineto did manufacture lamphouses and was a sale house for early Kalee and BTH machines...

So Urban ran an equipment dealership alongside his film production interests. Interesting. He would have had relationships with exhibitors formed by selling films to them, so that makes sense. The '00s was the decade when invention/manufacturing and actual movie-making gradually separated into distinct sectors of the industry (with the notable exception of Eastman Kodak, which never did anything other than produce technology). If his lamphouse has similarities to early Edison ones, I'm guessing Urban brought an example over (he was going backwards and forwards a lot over the Atlantic between around 1898 and 1905), and had a metalwork shop in or near London reverse engineer it.

I didn't know that British Thomson-Houston made film projectors that early. Around the turn of the c20 they made steam turbine generators for power stations, electric railroad/trolleybus/tram infrastructure, and some military stuff. The earliest BTH film projectors I've come across date from the mid-1930s, and I wonder how they got into that business.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

So Urban ran an equipment dealership alongside his film production interests. Interesting. He would have had relationships with exhibitors formed by selling films to them, so that makes sense. The '00s was the decade when invention/manufacturing and actual movie-making gradually separated into distinct sectors of the industry (with the notable exception of Eastman Kodak, which never did anything other than produce technology). If his lamphouse has similarities to early Edison ones, I'm guessing Urban brought an example over (he was going backwards and forwards a lot over the Atlantic between around 1898 and 1905), and had a metalwork shop in or near London reverse engineer it.

I didn't know that British Thomson-Houston made film projectors that early. Around the turn of the c20 they made steam turbine generators for power stations, electric railroad/trolleybus/tram infrastructure, and some military stuff. The earliest BTH film projectors I've come across date from the mid-1930s, and I wonder how they got into that business.

Yes, the last gestation of the BTH projector was pretty cool. It was more of a console type of thing with the projector rectifier and lamp house integrated into one unit.

[John Eickhof]

Leo, for sure! Technology moved at a rapid pace! Guys like Frank Cannock Who designed and built three machines prior to the Simple, in fact I learned something new about him from the PPT, he actually built a very early machine after he quit working in Edisons service dept, it was designed with a man named Beardslee from England! They only built a handfull in 1896-7 then Cannock designed the Cinematograph in 1903 while he was a projectionist at the Eden Musee in NYC running an Edison machine about a dozen produced and then the Edengraph in 1908 around 50 made then the Simplex with his new business partner Edwin S Porter, who filmed The Great Train Robbery, the first American film with a plausible story.In fact Porter desinged the Simplex camera around 1917. Mark, I love the forward design of the late model BTH you pictured! I would bet it weighs a ton!! It reminds me of the late Brenkert BX-80 with the Nelson stylinzed trim kit. I should have know, but today I went to put a pair of vintage 10" reels on the Simplex, they wouldn't fit because the shafts appear to be about 7mm in diameter!! Did the UK have a set shaft size like we do with 5/16" ?Oh well, lots of surprises!

[Leo Enticknap]

There were at least three spindle diameters in common use in the UK, which I suspect is part of the reason why prints were typically distributed on cores and in cans, rather than on reels and in Goldberg-style cases, as happens here. I'm afraid that I couldn't tell you what they were, but suspect that one was metric and the others Imperial. There was one very thick size that was usually used for 70mm and 12,000ft tower reels, and two others for regular 2,000ft reels. It was often the case that if for any reason you borrowed a reel from another cinema, if wouldn't fit on your projector.

[Jesse Crooks]

I know someone who has a British-made Butcher's Empire Cinematograph from the aughts. He hasn't been able to find any reels that fit besides the ones that came with it, which have a bore of about 10mm.

[Gordon McLeod]

Yes, the last gestation of the BTH projector was pretty cool. It was more of a console type of thing with the projector rectifier and lamp house integrated into one unit.

Typically the lamp rectifier was not in the base. The amplifier was. Also it had alot of focus issues

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Typically the lamp rectifier was not in the base. The amplifier was. Also it had alot of focus issues

The focus issues were fixed, but not all projectors may have been updated. The DP-70 had similar issues. The compound curved runner fixed that. Wolk made them for us.